(photo by Edo Zaghla)

Your Nijmegen
What does Nijmegen look like when you look at it with new eyes? What catches your eye at first glance? Many visitors to the Your Nijmegen exhibition and readers of this catalogue are rooted Nijmegen residents. It is difficult to (re)experience that first glance.
When we started the Your Nijmegen project, the idea was: let newcomers share their image of Nijmegen. The year before, we had organised a project in which newcomers were portrayed. And because we like to work on equal two-way relationships, a logical thought was to organise it the other way round now.
The project really came to life for me when I saw a photo of a market in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. A picture with colourful African clothes offered for sale there. An exotic photograph, one that arouses desire, that almost makes vibrate your other senses.
Would newcomers have a similar experience when they – coming from a far distant country – look around Nijmegen for the first time? Maybe they experience less the colours or the crowds, but what else? Or … …, what do you actually see when you look around Nijmegen for the first time? What stands out? Do you experience the city’s charm? Or is it mostly boring compared to where you come from?
Recently I asked several people who are new to Nijmegen. What stands out? Is it mainly the bicycles and the fish cart, as you might quickly think? Well, it isn’t. To my surprise, someone from an African country said: ‘narrow streets and cute little cars’. Oh yes of course, I thought, in second thought. You are used to those wide, dusty roads that are especially suitable for a Landrover. And ‘groups of smoking people on the street’ was another response. And someone else said: ‘I thought I was entering a communist country – the houses and everything outside is so planned’. Fortunately, she also said the air is so pure.
The Your Nijmegen project is an attempt to use photography to find out what newcomers experience at their first glance. The result is a number of beautiful photographs, which you can watch at our exhibition from 15 January 2025. 

It was a wonderful project, not only because of the result – beautiful photos – but because of the process: looking through a lens helps newcomers make the city their own.
And we are not going to do it through photography alone this time. We want to hear stories about Nijmegen, poems, paintings or other creative means of making the city our own. Throughout the centuries – starting with the Romans – Nijmegen has always been a city of newcomers. Newcomers have helped shape the city into what it is today. It is up to the new generation of newcomers to also have their share in what makes Nijmegen Nijmegen.